News/International

TORONTO - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has a personal connection to the issue of maternal and child health. He had two siblings die as infants, he revealed on the closing day of the Saving Every Woman, Every Child: Within Arm's Reach summit in Toronto.

Atheists lost their case against the “In God We Trust” motto on the United States' currency May 28.

VATICAN CITY - A "globalization of indifference" has taken hold of too many of the world's people, numbing them to the horrifying reality faced by the people of Syria and other innocent victims of war and violence around the world, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis’ announcement this week that he would meet with victims of sexual abuse by priests is dividing victim advocates, with some dismissing the move as “meaningless” and others endorsing it as a positive step, albeit taken belatedly and under pressure.

WARSAW, Poland - A Catholic bishop in eastern Ukraine said church members are afraid to attend Mass in Donetsk and other towns after a priest from Poland was abducted by pro-Russia separatists.

OXFORD, England - The Ukrainian Catholic Church has welcomed the victory of a billionaire candy tycoon in presidential election and praised the previous interim government for holding the country together in "dramatic circumstances."

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Churches in Sudan, including the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Conference, have condemned the death sentence handed to a pregnant Christian who refused to renounce her faith.

BETHLEHEM - Come Sunday morning about 9,000 Christians who have been granted tickets will form Pope Francis' congregation on Manger Square in Bethlehem. Around, above and behind them will be as many as 800 journalists.

VATICAN CITY - The UN Committee Against Torture urged the Vatican to impose "meaningful sanctions" on any Church authority who fails to follow Church law in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse and asked that Church officials worldwide be required to report abuse allegations to local police.

OXFORD, England - Catholics in Libya are "living in fear" as conflict escalates between Islamist militias and followers of a rebel general, said priests in Tripoli and Benghazi.